How we built the index

Each of the seven measures is scored as a percentile against its own history, using only the months up to the one being scored, so no reading is shaped by data that arrived later. Most of the underlying series reach back to 1999, a decade before the published index begins. A reading of 50 means the measure sits at its median, an ordinary month. A reading of 80 means it is more stressed than 80 percent of the months on record to that point.

The seven percentiles are then averaged with equal weight into the headline number. Because every measure is ranked against its own past, a normal month settles near 50 by construction, and the index eases in calmer stretches rather than holding at a permanent high.

We publish the equal-weight series as the headline and ship an alternate channel-weighted series in the data file for anyone who wants it. The weights are fixed and published, never tuned after the fact.

The index is published monthly. Most measures update every month. Housing affordability, the debt-service ratio, and the saving rate update quarterly, and are held at their last reading between releases rather than guessed at.

The two most recent months are marked provisional, because late-arriving and revised source data can still move them.

The series spans 2009 to today. The full seven-measure version begins in 2012, when the national insolvency series starts; the months back to 2009 are scored from the measures available then and are marked as partial coverage. Source agencies revise their recent figures, so each monthly release recomputes the full history from the latest data and archives a dated snapshot. Any past reading can be reproduced from the matching snapshot and this method.

This is a national and provincial average. It does not capture wealth, inequality, or any single household's situation, and it measures financial pressure rather than overall wellbeing. For where you personally stand, a household tool is the better fit.

The household tool puts your situation on the same 0 to 100 scale. It is the index with three of its seven components recomputed from your own numbers, while the other four are taken from your province in the live index. So your reading is directly comparable to the national and provincial figures.

The three personal measures are scored against published benchmarks rather than a survey of households:

• Shelter cost is your housing cost as a share of gross income, anchored at the CMHC affordability standard of 30 percent.
• Debt service is your housing plus other debt payments as a share of income, anchored at the standard ceilings used in Canadian mortgage qualifying (a 39 percent gross and 44 percent total debt service limit).
• Cushion is your savings measured in months of essential spending, anchored at the three-month minimum and six-month recommended emergency-fund standard.

The deeper view reuses the same calculators that power the site: a job-loss runway with current Employment Insurance parameters, after-tax income on current federal and provincial brackets, and your borrowing room against the same lending ceilings.

One thing the tool does not claim is a percentile against other households. A true personal percentile would need household-level microdata we do not hold, so rather than estimate one we compare your reading to the index and to each published benchmark. Everything runs in your browser; none of your figures are sent to us or stored.